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Sports biz: From smart basketball to William Shatner

Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY Sports
9:10 a.m. EST March 1, 2013

New basketball seems normal but grabs 6,000 data bits per second to improve your game

94Fifty is the smart basketball developed by InfoMotion Sports Technologies and available on sale for $295 online beginning in April. The ball is billed as being able to improve your game by giving instant feedback via this chip embedded in the exterior.(Photo: Mark W. Pasternack, InfoMotion Sports Technologies Inc. Masslive.com)

Story Highlights

New basketball looks and feels normal but gobbles up 6,000 bits of data per second

Tech-savvy basketball players can improve their game with the feedback from the ball

William Shatner will appear as a home plate umpire at Fenway Park in Brian Evans CD

Now that a new regulation-sized, normal-looking basketball can transmit 6,000 bits of data per second, maybe we can all move on to creating robot players.

The 94Fifty ball, which is named for the dimensions of a pro or college basketball court and will go on sale online in April, bills itself as the world's first smart basketball and is meant to turn even a simple layup into a pile of data.

The ball, with its data retrieval system, will cost $295. It supposedly feels like a regular ball even as it conducts its on-court surveillance. And while this is a ball that needs to be recharged, hey, it's the 21st-century so don't worry -- the ball can be recharged wirelessly.

Founder and CEO Michael Crowley, of the Dublin, Ohio-based InfoMotion Sports Technologies says the six sensors embedded in the ball's exterior can transmit data within 100 milliseconds to Android smart devices located up to 90 feet away. The system includes an app that offers suggestions to players to improve their form.

OK, so you won't have to wait long for the information. But why would you even want to see such data?

The idea is that by, say, collecting data on dribble force, you can see how much weaker a player is with one hand as opposed to his or her other.

With the 94Fifty basketball, you should be able to instantly get feedback on a mobile device.(Photo: Mark W. Pasternack, InfoMotion Sports Technologies Inc.)

After online sales begin in April, Crowley hopes to get the ball in retail stores and says he's talking to leagues about using it in games -- so coaches could use the data to improve play or sportscasters can create even more stats to show viewers.

Crowley says the 10-person company, founded in 2008, has already tested versions of the product, costing $2,500-$5,000, with teams in Italy and the Netherlands. Those versions, he says, have more "pattern-reaction algorithms," are more suited for monitoring groups of players and offer videos showing drills meant to correct specific problems.

Obviously, this could go on and on and provide even more statistical fodder for obsessed coaches and a sports world crying out for more stats.

Next up, we hope: A really smart ball that, like a heat-seeking missile, can change its direction in flight to hit its target.

Basketball app: Krossover, a New York City-based startup, has planned a gaming app that let's you freeze real basketball video action -- then let you guess how the play ends. The app obviously could be used simply for recreation. But it's being tested by the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers to analyze their play as well as evaluate opponents. Cavaliers analytics head Ben Alamar says the app has "the added benefits of forcing players to watch film." Krossover hopes to go on to create similar apps for sports such as football and soccer. The app, like the InFomotion Sports Technologies' 94Fifty basketball, will be demonstrated at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston on Friday and Saturday.

William Shatner, right, and James Spader, left, were the stars of the ABC legal drama series 'Boston Legal.'(Photo: Scott Garfield, ABC)

Spice rack: NFL Network's NFL combine coverage does boffo TV box office. It drew a record 7.25 million viewers -- up 11% from last year -- while its 3.6 million digital video streams were up 89% from last year. ... Actor/pitchman William Shatner will appear as a home plate umpire in Boston's Fenway Park in a music video for singer Brian Evans' upcoming The Croonerman CD. Here's how Evans explains that casting: "Every Boston Red Sox fan we approached said that William Shatner as the umpire was iconic as the ballpark itself," he said of the former Boston Legal star.